A brief descent into the semi-serious

Think of a tune. Hum it. Whistle it. Undoubtedly, what you’ve just thought of has been thought of sometime in the past, by someone else in the same Universe as you. And perhaps they were humming the tune on their way to work; perhaps they were smacking their desk to the rhythm of the beat in their head; maybe they belted it out in front of a full house. This tune, this pathetically small little grouping of notes, has been echoing across the world for centuries, before music could even be written.

It can be said that every person has their own melodic line in the Universe. They harmonize with some lines, clash with others, repeat some, deviate from the pattern, maybe take someone else’s and switch it around until it becomes their own. These melodic lines by themselves are altogether boring.

The real magic happens when they meet.

That’s the opening to the latest story I’m writing called Discord. The story itself is about an investigative reporter and his sarcastic partner working with the drug lord of a city in an attempt to get a story, and preferably, some profit. The underlying theme, though, is in music.

I’m a sucker for classical. Sure, I’ll listen to almost everything, so long as it’s not screaming at me. Perhaps it’s from going to church for so long, but classical music has a depth to it I just don’t hear in most other music. (Granted, some classical music really sucks.) The preludes and postludes played at the beginning and end of a church service grab my attention in particular.

If I was asked to “Think of a tune,” it would likely be Johann Sebastian Bach’s Little Fugue in G Minor. It’s a beautiful piece because it’s a simple piece. It begins with a single melody, then repeats it over and under itself, coming in at different times in different places with the same familiar three notes. It’s the same thing, but repeated and echoed in such a way that it creates new music every time.

Makes me think of life, really. I mean, G Minor has a more personal meaning to me than what I’m about to describe, but that’s not something I’m going to blog about, kthx. Anyway, life is made up of repeating patterns in the same way, often the exact same pattern over and over again, constantly. Often we forget that we can make new music from the same patterns, focusing too much on the patterns themselves.